Patient collaboration improves hospital services
Colleagues at Newham Hospital continue to blaze a trail in delivering people and patient participation and engagement following a third successful world café.
But beyond these cafés, our people participation leads (PPLs) Anna and Mbema have been collaborating with service users and their loved ones in other ways. And they’ve had phenomenal success.
Driving change through quality improvement
Used across Newham Hospital, quality improvement is a fantastic way to drive meaningful, lasting improvements in the care we provide. That’s why it’s so fantastic to see QI embedded in Anna and Mbemba’s approach to people participation.
To date, three members of the working together group have attended the first steps in QI training , with more taking the course in the future. The group are also supporting a wide variety of QI projects across the hospital, including some of the Well Newham Challenge projects and a project looking at improving transport services for stroke patients.
Involving service users in QI projects means we can be confident that these projects will truly benefit those they aim to help. For example, a member of the Working Together Group was involved in a project at the Gateway Surgical Centre which has improved call waiting times for people trying to ring the service and led to a reduction in the number of complaints raised across the department.
15 steps challenge
The working together group are also playing a vital role in rolling out the ’15 steps challenge’ programme across Newham. Developed by NHS England, it aims to improve our hospital’s services by getting – and acting on – feedback from service users and their loved one.
To date, the Working Together Group have carried out 8 ‘15 steps challenge’ reviews and will be supporting its roll out across the hospital in the coming months. This means we can be confident that any improvements we make to patient information and experience – like the new welcome pack being developed for Heather Ward – reflect what patients and their loved ones tell us they want and need.
And that’s not all…
Our working together group have also:
- been involved in our latest PLACE assessment
- ran a survey to review and improve how our urgent treatment centre runs
- joined a steering group looking at improving our imaging services
- reviewed the public seating proposal for our two new wards
“By giving their time to get involved in so many varied projects across the hospital, these service users are providing us with incredible insight and information that we can and do use to improve the care we provide”, explains Anna.
“It’s fantastic to see the group develop, grow, become more confident and willing to try new things, like the QI training”, she continues. “We’re fortunate to have their support. I hope we can continue to get even the voices of even more service users heard across even more areas of Newham Hospital this year."